Thrusday, December 24, 1998

Blind faith

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Failing eyesight didn't stop Finneytown man from building his Nativity scene for the 43nd year

BY JOHN JOHNSTON
The Cincinnati Enquirer

Joseph Sabato had plenty of support from his wife, Eve, and grandchildren, Dana and Victoria Sabato and Tony and Alex Paolo. (Yoni Pozner photo) | ZOOM |

        His eyes began failing about 10 years ago.

        Gradually a disorder called macular degeneration enveloped Joseph Sabato's world like a dense fog. The 82-year-old Finneytown man is now legally blind.

        “From here, I no see your face,” he says, sitting a few feet away.

        He is a dignified-looking fellow with white, wavy hair and an Italian accent so thick that his two adult children and 71-year-old wife, Eva, sometimes speak for him.

        But nobody need translate the proud and joyful look on Mr. Sabato's face as he shows visitors the presepio,or Nativity scene, he has assembled in the finished basement of his home.

        It is no ordinary Nativity scene, but a complete village, larger than a Ping-Pong table and set against a backdrop of painted paper mountains. Running water flows from a mill; small working lights brighten each of the dozens of buildings; a river, made with mirrors, winds its way through the village, which is populated by perhaps 200 townsfolk going about their daily tasks.

        A star hovers overhead, and below it is a manger and crib. The crib is empty. But that will change tonight.

Refused to quit
        In Cincinnati, Mr. Sabato has assembled a presepio each of the past 42 years. Because of his eyes, nobody expected him to make one this year. Except Mr. Sabato.

        At the end of October, he began taking the pieces out of storage.

        “I make it with my hands,” he says, “not my eyes.”

        He declined his son's offer of help. He has always done it himself.

        Instead of the finishing nails he has always used, Mr. Sabato switched to the flat-head variety, which made it easier to feel where to strike with a hammer.

        Even then, it was a struggle. His fingers and hands bled from the pounding they took.

        “Joe, please, forget it,” Eva, his wife of 42 years told him. “You can't do it no more.”

        “No, I have to,” he said. “My grandchildren have to see the crib on Christmas Eve.”

        Every year the Sabatos' grandchildren — Tony Paolo, 13; Alex Paolo, 9; Dana Sabato, who will be 9 on Dec. 28; and Victoria Sabato, 5 — have seen the presepio in their grandparents' home. Dozens of other friends and family members come to view it, too.

        Daughter Angela Paolo knows how much it means to her father. “He puts so much love into it,” she says. “It wouldn't be Christmas for him without it.”

Family tradition
        Joseph Sabato — Giuseppe is his given Italian name — grew up in Fuscaldo, a small town in southern Italy where families hold tightly to the centuries-old tradition of the presepio. The custom, every Christmas Eve, is for the youngest family member to place baby Jesus in the crib.

        Eva was born in America to Italian parents, but her family was originally from Fuscaldo, also. They moved to Italy in 1932, when she was 3¹/₂. The families became acquainted, as did Joseph and Eva.

        When World War II broke out, Joseph served in the Italian military. He was captured by Americans and spent four years in a California prisoner-of-war camp.

        After the war, Eva's family returned to the United States. Joseph wanted to come, too, but was denied entry because of his military service.

        And so the young couple, who Eva says were “promised to each other,” wrote letters.

        “I told him, "I'll wait for you, no matter how long it's gonna take,' ” she says.

        It took eight years.

        Joseph arrived in Cincinnati in 1955. He and Eva married in June 1956.

        In December that year, Eva returned home from work, and saw it: a little presepio Joseph had fashioned in a corner of their Mount Auburn dining room.

        He has made one every year since then.

        The couple built a life in Cincinnati, moving from Mount Auburn to Finneytown 35 years ago. Both are retired now, but for many years they worked at an Avondale tailoring company. Eva, a seamstress, made suit pockets. Joseph pressed the finished suits.

        Their children grew up, got married. Angela Paolo lives in Madeira; Raffaele Sabato, whom everyone knows as Ralph, lives in Finneytown. As youngsters, they looked forward to placing baby Jesus in the presepio every Christmas Eve.

        Over the years, the nativity scene grew. They bought additional figurines at dime stores. Friends and family brought more from Italy. And Ralph constructed buildings for the village.

Work is complete
        This year, two weeks after Mr. Sabato started work on the presepio, it was done.

        “After I finish, I'm happy,” he says.

        Happy, because now the Sabato family can celebrate Christmas Eve the way they always do.

        Joseph and Eva will welcome Angela's and Ralph's families into their home at about 6 o'clock. They will all walk downstairs to the basement. Joseph will light the presepio. Then they will eat their customary Christmas Eve meal: 12 types of fish, representing Jesus' 12 disciples; spaghetti with olive oil and garlic; and roasted chestnuts.

        Afterward, they will stand at the presepio, and sing “Tu scendi dalle stelle” (You descend from the stars). The song tells of a baby born in a cold grotto.

        The porcelain baby Jesus figurine, tucked away for nearly a year, will be brought out, and they all will take turns kissing it.

        Who will place the baby in the crib?

        “The little one,” Joseph says.

        That is Victoria Paolo, the youngest of the four grandchildren.

        And then, Joseph Sabato's Christmas gift to his family will be complete. He will not see their faces, but surely he will know they are smiling.

       

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